Deception
by Golem XIV
Summary: A birthday present for my friend bearhow! And what can be a better present than a story featuring both his OCs Drake Daniels and Landon and my own OC, Match! Mind the rating, some of the concepts, scenes and language could be disturbing.


**Author's Note:** A (somewhat belated) birthday present for my friend **bearhow**! Hope you had a good one, and that you'll enjoy this present of mine!

 **Disclaimer:** In Soviet Russia, Teen Titans owns _you!_

A birthday present for my friend bearhow! And what can be a better present than a story featuring both his OCs Drake Daniels and Landon and my own OC, Match! Mind the rating, some of the concepts, scenes and language could be disturbing.

-=oOo=-

The dilapidated church looked like it was long abandoned. The tall, wildly overgrown hedgerow did a good job of hiding it from casual observers, and the boarded-up windows and rusty padlock on the door kept out the more adventurous eyes.

But now the padlock was cloven through, the cut portion of the metal gleaming under the layer of fake rust. Drake studied it carefully for a few moments, noting there were no stripes from sawing or deformations from breakage. It was cut through cleanly, in one swipe made by an extremely sharp and extremely strong instrument. He frowned, pushing the fact into a remote corner of his mind for his subconscious to mull over. It was probably related to the sounds of fighting coming from inside, but he didn't have the time to consider it. He braced himself and slipped stealthily through the partially opened door.

He ran crouching along the wall, using the rows of piled-up, smashed pews as concealment while his eyes adjusted themselves to the gloom inside, trusting his sensitive nose and ears to keep him out of danger.

The coppery smell of blood and the stench of spilled guts hit him like a hammer. It's been a long time since he'd felt them, and he never got used to them. As his pupils dilated to allow more light in, he risked a look over the overturned pew he was hiding behind.

The church was much larger inside than it appeared from the outside. It might've been simple architectonic skill or it may have been something more sinister; right now it was just another irrelevant fact. What was relevant was the crowd of cloaked figures that was doing their best to kill the lonely young woman facing them with her back to the wall and a snarl on her face. The piles of dismembered bodies strewn around her made it quite clear they were not being very successful.

The girl swung a four-feet-long, softly glowing blue blade in an arc through one of the robed figures, cutting it neatly and effortlessly in half. The other hand was apparently controlling a large bluish disk in front of her, protecting her from a hail of hot lead that several attackers were sending her way from guns and assault rifles.

As Drake watched the girl moved. The shimmering blade vanished and she flicked her wrist, sending a Frisbee-like disk spinning towards one of the riflemen while the shooter was busy loading a new clip into the weapon. The disk sheared through barrel, arm and torso with equal ease before vanishing.

Drake tensed and his hands gripped the pew, ready to jump up and join the fray. Whoever the young woman was, she certainly didn't look like she needed help; the crowd of cloaked worshippers was thinning visibly as their remains piled up on the blood-slick floor. Drake reached for his own blade and rose to stop the butchery going on before his eyes. He was a hero now; as much as he had a very good idea who the zealots attacking the girl were, he couldn't allow the carnage to continue.

"Magnificent, isn't she?" the words spoken in a smooth British accent made him turn his head with a scowl. "I haven't seen talent like this since a young and eager dragon knight."

"Should've figured you'd be involved, Landon!" Drake growled.

Landon grinned back, a charming grin revealing perfect, pearly teeth; a grin that won men over and made women weak in their knees. A grin Drake was immune to. His scowl deepened. "So you found someone to do your dirty work?" he sneered at the Lord of Hell.

Landon shrugged, his grin never faltering. "My work is always dirty. And since you've became... _picky_ recently, I had to look for other candidates."

They both turned their heads towards the girl. She slid along the wall, not letting her enemies gang up and overwhelm her. The circular, semi-transparent shield in front of her kept her safe from the bullets and the blade that extended from her wrist and over the fist licked out like a striking viper to slice through necks and arms and guts as easily as dragging it through water. Ranged attackers were mown down by ten-inch disks that she threw with uncanny accuracy. Drake gritted his teeth in frustration.

Only four Trigon worshippers remained, one of them desperately pulling on the trigger of an empty assault rifle while the other three stumbled back, the awareness of the slaughter around them finally reaching their bloodlust-maddened minds. The girl grinned at them and the disk and blade vanished. A long staff of transparent blue extended from her hands and she waded in, knocking all four down with a swift and brutal series of strikes that took barely a couple of seconds. Drake nodded his grudging appreciation of her skill and stepped forward, but Landon's hand on his shoulder stopped him. He glanced in irritation at the sharply-dressed demon who only responded by widening his grin and looking meaningfully at the winner of the recent battle.

She wiped the sweat from her face with a torn sleeve and smoothed out a long lock of hair that fell from her forehead over her buzz-cut. She frowned and her eyes swept the interior of the church, making sure there were no enemies left. Drake noticed her gaze brush blindly over them and glanced quizzically at Landon.

"Are you hiding us?"

"Hush," the Demon Lord clicked his tongue impatiently. "Of course I am. Pay attention, now comes the best part."

The girl bent and rotated her head, as if to loosen up sore neck muscles, then turned and walked with decisive strides towards the altar.

"The artifact I hired her to obtain," Landon explained with a chuckle. "I wonder if she'll notice…"

Drake's eyes narrowed as they studied the altar. "There's a pentagram on the floor around the artifact, Landon! If she steps into it she'll release the –"

"I know!" Landon's grin widened. "I told you, this is the best part!"

"I've got to help her!" Drake shouted and surged forward, only to be pulled back by Landon's hand.

"No!" The Lord of Hell snarled, his grin gone and his eyes now as dark as the inside of a sealed coffin. "This is her test."

The Dragon Knight tried furiously to jerk his arm away and free himself but Landon's grip was uncontestable. Drake may've been immune to magic, but he wasn't immune to the otherworldly strength of the Ruler of the Pits. He ceased his fruitless squirming and watched, mesmerized, as the girl approached the altar. His fists clenched and an enraged growl sneaked out from his throat as she made the final, oblivious step over the edge of the pentagram.

"Landon…" Drake hissed a dangerous warning, again trying to pull away. The Demon Lord ignored him, leaning forward and watching in rapt attention.

A sickly, yellowish-red mist burst from the points of the pentagram and swirled around to coalesce into a monstrous form, four-armed, crocodile-snouted, bat-winged and with an exaggeratedly large male organ dangling between its short, crooked, bird-clawed legs.

 _Meat!_ it howled, its four eyes focusing on the girl backpedaling in fearful surprise. _Warm meat! To gnaw, and to fuck!_

It lunged forward, all four arms reaching to seize her. Drake jerked again uselessly against Landon's grip.

Ethereal blue blades formed over each one of the girl's fists. She swiped them and buried them deeply into demonflesh, cutting one arm off at the elbow. The creature's howl deepened from lust to pain and rage and it rushed forward on short, powerful and surprisingly swift legs.

The young woman ducked under the demon's grasp, rolling over her left shoulder as her right hand sliced the blade viciously over its belly, disemboweling it. But the demonic creature never wavered; reddish mist flowed from the wounds and sealed them, and the severed arm turned into smoke to gather and solidify around its elbow. The monster roared a mixture of pain and satisfaction.

 _Rip you! Tear you! Rape you!_ it bellowed, backhanding the woman and sending her crashing against a wall. She struck it and fell, shaking her head to clear the dazedness away. The demon waddled over.

 _Not kill you, no! Rape your body, rip your soul, bring it to Lord Trigon!_

One grotesque claw seized her throat and lifted her as if she was a toy. Two hands grasped her wrists and pulled them apart. The fourth claw tore her clothes away.

Two spinning disks of blue appeared on each side of the demon's neck and scissored in, biting almost all the way through the unearthly flesh, bone and cartilage. The creature gurgled in pain and released her while thick clouds of red mist healed its wounds. The girl rolled away and sprang to her feet, throwing several cutting disks at the monster.

The net effect, besides driving the demon out of what little mind it had with rage, was to slow it down. She heaved in great gulps of air and retreated, bombarding the colossus with her disks, aiming at the legs and knees in an effort to keep it away from her.

"Will she remember?" Landon wondered, distracted by the spectacle. Drake scowled. "Remember what?"

"Shhhh!" The King of Hell hissed, his attention fully on the battle. The monstrous demon charged, sacrificing two hands to intercept the disks she threw at its legs. A clawed arm arced down and slammed into a shimmering, ethereal but unyielding shield. But the fourth arm snaked up from below, long fingers with scythelike talons rushing towards the girl's torso and piercing deep into her gut. She managed only to let out the beginning of a scream before it was drowned in the blood that rushed out of her mouth.

 _Not kill, not yet! Rape first, rip later!_

It lifted the weakly-struggling body impaled on its claw and licked its jagged, alligator-like teeth. With a flick of his wrist he tossed her away on the floor and moved closer, the organ between its legs rising like a snake as it prepared to fulfill its threat.

Drake roared and jerked desperately, finally tearing his arm free from Landon's grip. Ignoring the anguished certainty that he would be too late he sped towards them, his dark, forlorn gaze riveted on the girl's eyes. She didn't see him; she was watching the approaching monster and trying to squirm away, even as her mind realized it was futile. Her eyes narrowed and she bared her teeth in sudden defiant rage as the demon bent over her and again two blades appeared over her fists, this time shimmering with an eerie red glow.

"Rape _this,_ asshole!" she rasped hoarsely and stabbed the left-hand blade into the monster's groin.

It screeched and all the glass remaining in the boarded-up windows exploded in a shower of glittering fragments. All four hands reached to cover the wound that would not heal this time. She tore the blade out and the demon shrieked deafeningly, doubling over. Her right hand shot up and drove its blade under the misshapen chin until it broke out between the monster's horns. The huge form keeled over with a final whimper and dissolved into ash and fetid red smoke. She turned her head, spat a derisive mixture of blood and saliva at the swirling ash and slumped unconscious.

Drake's Titan communicator was out of his pocket and opening before he even reached her. "Robin! Get Raven here, it's a medical emergency! Tell her to use my gem as a beacon!"

It was a question of seconds before a black portal opened and four figures stepped out of it. Raven's eyes assessed the situation immediately.

"I'll need your help," she told the Dragon Knight with a note of imperiousness as she knelt beside the agonizing woman. Drake nodded, grasped her hand and took hold of the teal gem that hung over his neck with his other hand, allowing the sorceress to pull energy out of him. Raven's pale face lost what little color it had, her teeth clenched and a whimper of pain went through her throat. For a few moments it lingered, then her face relaxed and a deep sigh was torn out of her chest.

"She'll live," she observed dryly, her eyes still closed. Drake bent and whispered urgently in her ear.

Raven's eyes opened and went to the altar, then shifted to look at the King of Demons as he walked slowly but purposefully towards the artifact. Her hand lifted.

" _Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!_ " she shouted and the artifact fell through a small black portal into oblivion. Landon whirled towards her.

"What do you think you're _doing,_ Trigon spawn?" he shouted, his face livid.

"Sending it to where it belongs," she spat out, then bent until her forehead almost touched the bloodied floor. She was utterly spent.

Landon's lips curled back from his teeth. A bristling Beast Boy jumped in front of Raven, his own snarl challenging the demon's, his body rippling under the uniform as it stood poised on the edge of turning into the Beast. But Landon ignored him; his dead-black eyes turned instead on Drake.

"This is your doing," he spoke softly, the words wrapped in the silky British accent unable to conceal the wrath behind them. "You told her to do it."

Drake stood motionless except for the fingers whose knuckles whitened over the hilt of his blade. "I don't trust you with it, Landon," Drake spoke hoarsely, feeling the adrenaline pump through his body. Did he push Landon too far? Would their friendship be enough of a shield against the rage he provoked in the Lord of Hell?

The world stood still for a couple of seconds before Landon relaxed. The darkness in his eyes sank back inside him and the charming grin reappeared on his face.

"Now, now, darling," the Demon Lord spoke in his most velvety voice. "Let us not fight. What's another couple of centuries of searching between friends?"

Drake barely managed to keep to himself the relieved breath that wanted to gust out of his lungs so badly. He gave the demon back a mirthless, defiant grin. "Let me know when you find it, so I can keep it away from you again."

"Tut-tut, m'dear!" Landon chuckled and shook his head. "I wouldn't dream of doing your job for you." The demon's dark eyes glanced to the side and returned to gaze at Drake, shining with malicious playfulness. "I'll see myself out. I wouldn't want to keep you away from your concerns. Ta ta!"

Drake's eyes followed Landon's gaze and he froze, ignoring the sight of the demon vanishing in a cold, black puff of smoke that stank of brimstone. He strode quickly to the pink-haired girl that was standing unmoving, looking through wide-open eyes at the remainders of the butchery around them. He stepped in front of her, blocking her view, and folded his arms around her. She hugged him back fiercely but silently. He guided her to the door and out into the sunlight and fresh air. She followed him without speaking.

"You shouldn't have seen that," he whispered once they were out and his arms encircled her protectively again. "Why did you come?"

Kole snuggled into his arms. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't shocked by the sight, but she wasn't as delicate as Drake seemed to be thinking. She'll have to talk to him and dispel those medieval views he still carried – eventually. Right now she was going to take all the advantages she could out of this situation.

"I was there when you called Robin," she muttered, admitting her concern. "When you said there was a medical emergency wild horses couldn't drag me away, and the Boy Wonder knew it."

He chuckled, then sank his face in her hair. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

She hid a smirk and burrowed deeper. "It's okay," she bit her lip. "Did Landon get mad at you?"

"Yeah, he did," he frowned as he thought about it, never becoming aware that she changed the subject. "He'll cool off," he said dismissively, but then his frown deepened. "Matter of fact, now that I think of it, he gave up too easily for him…" his voice trailed off as his mind analyzed the new thought. He snapped his fingers abruptly.

"That's it!" he exclaimed. "It was all a deception! It was all about the girl, not..." He pulled back and looked into Kole's eyes, a grin of understanding spreading across his face. "'Her test', he called it. It was not about the artifact, it was about her!" He hugged his girlfriend tight, pleased with the success of his deduction. "He wanted her to…"

His face darkened abruptly as it all sank in. "He wanted her to face and kill the Guardian Demon. He's… he's training her, and she probably doesn't even know she's being manipulated."

Kole's hand traced caressingly over his cheek. "Was that girl…" her voice was soft but level. "Was it she that… did all this?"

"Yeah, it was her," Drake nodded, scowling. "For what it's worth, it was in self defense."

Kole's mouth turned up in a small smile. "You'd make a good lawyer."

Drake looked away. "I… I understand her. It's not like I wasn't in similar situations myself enough times," he mumbled defensively, then stiffened as he realized what he had just confessed to. He squeezed his eyes shut as a sudden fear swamped him, fear that she would reject him, be disgusted with him for all the horrible things he was once forced to do. He tried to move back and disentangle himself from her arms, to fly away and disappear, to never see the shame and loathing in her eyes –

Soft lips pressed themselves on his and banished the irrational guilt as he returned her kiss hungrily. After a long while Kole drew back and regarded him with amused understanding in her beautiful eyes.

"If you'll forgive me for paraphrasing Raven, you're an idiot, Drake Daniels!" she smiled and kissed him deeply again.


End file.
